The National Football League has a long regular season of sixteen games
Aaron Colvin Jersey , spanning almost four full calendar months.A lot of teams go through certain phases over the duration of a season, as if the season is one
elegant novel composed of eventful, but unique chapters.The roller coaster that
has been the 2018 Houston Texans’ season is exactly how Mark Twain would have
scripted it if he were still alive and assigned to tell the story of a football
team.The plot is simple. The overly flawed protagonist falls into a hole,
becomes resilient, rides a wave of success and luck before the magic slowly dies
out as the goal lies within reach.The road to the NFL Playoffs for these Houston
Texans fits that bill like Cinderella and her glass slipper.Looking like he
might be just a flash-in-the-pan early in the season, unable to recapture his
rookie year magic, September had Deshaun Watson looking like what he was—a young
player still recovering from a torn ACL.Watson’s play was sloppy.His legs were
not quite working yet. Everything on a football team begins with the
quarterback, the most important position in all of sports, and Watson didn’t
look like the guy who set the league on fire in 2017.An opening day loss in New
England, followed by two more losses to the Tennessee Titans and the New York
Giants, put the Texans at 0-3, leaving them with a 2.8 percent chance of
securing postseason berth. Only five of the 153 teams that started the season
0-3 since 1980 have reached the playoffs.The Texans proceeded to rally for a
nine-game winning streak to reach the top of the AFC South division, squarely in
contention for a first-round bye. The tables turned as Deshaun Watson began
looking like the rookie dynamo he was last year and Houston’s defense saw
improvement, most notably against the rush.The Texans finished third in the
league in rushing yards allowed per game at 82.7, just behind the Bears and
Saints. They allowed 3.4 yards per attempt, which ranks them first in the league
in that statistical category.Of course, some fortunate late-game miscues by
opponents assisted the Texans on some of their nine consecutive wins. Most folks
outside of Houston disregarded this team as a true contender due to their
excessive lack of style points in their wins.Good thing the NFL is not college
football.The finish of the regular season was far from smooth. After losing at
home to the Colts via a dominant performance from Andrew Luck, the Texans had
their hands full with the New York Jets, squeaking by on a late
touchdown.Houston followed that up with a last-second field goal loss to the
Eagles in Philadelphia and a ho-hum win at home against the Jaguars, leaving
some down on these Texans as the NFL Playoffs loom and Indianapolis Colts
loom.JJ Watt will need to spearhead this defense if they have real aspirations
in the postseason.Troy Taormina-USA TODAY SportsIn retrospect, 2018 has been a
tale of three seasons. They just all happened to occur in the same four month
period of 2018.The first season was full of dysfunction came early.Houston fans
quickly put their hopes in the Astros repeating their World Series run of 2017
as the Texans appeared headed for a top ten pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.The
second season, known as “The Magic Carpet Ride,” gave the Texans a historic
winning streak that lasted two and a half months, propelling them from the
graveyard to a potential first-round bye.The third season began once the winning
streak ended, and it was time to see how this group would respond in the thick
of a playoff race.There is a fourth season that begins this Saturday against the
Colts. The postseason. While national attention will be directed towards the
Chiefs and Patriots as it pertains to the AFC, the Texans will look to continue
their under-the-radar journey and win a home playoff game for just the fourth
time in franchise history.As good the novel has been so far, it would only be
fitting if it were concluded in nail-biting fashion.That has been the name of
the game for these Texans.No win is overly impressive.No loss is overly
deflating. Everything seems to come down to a few plays
Ka’imi Fairbairn Jersey , no matter how well or poor they perform.The Texans can look like the more talented and superior team yet still escape on a
missed last-second field goal.Or they can look overmatched for sixty minutes and
potentially come within an offsides penalty of having a chance to tie a
game.Whichever result comes to pass on Saturday will only further write the
novel that details how the season has gone for the Texans:The Little Engine That
Couldn’t, But Then Sorta Could: The Story of the 2018 Houston Texans PITTSBURGH
(AP) — T.J. Watt is not trying to match his older brother sack for sack.
Honest.It’s just sort of happening that way for the second-year Pittsburgh
Steelers linebacker, whose six quarterback takedowns through the first five
weeks of the season have him tied with Cincinnati defensive end Carlos Dunlap
and Houston Texans star J.J. Watt — the oldest of the three Watt brothers in the
NFL — for the league lead.“I can’t get caught up in any of the statistical
things,” T.J. Watt said. “I’m sure my mom thinks it’s a lot cooler than I
do.”Connie Watt’s not the only one. Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler
is pretty impressed too, particularly with the way the 24-year-old Watt has
assimilated so quickly. Then again, Butler knows Watt’s unique family dynamic
played a role in his rapid adjustment to life in the NFL.“I think he’s kind of
grown up in that atmosphere,” Butler said. “He had a good idea what it took to
be successful in the NFL before we got him.”Watt racked up seven sacks as a
rookie in 2017 and appears ready to take a leap forward in 2018. He opened his
second season by getting three sacks in Cleveland and added three more in last
week’s 41-17 dismantling of Atlanta , including a strip-sack of Falcons
quarterback Matt Ryan that teammate L.J. Fort fell on in the end zone for a
touchdown.“We just wanted to show who we really were,” Watt said. “We weren’t
proud of the performances we put out in the first few showings of the season,
and we just wanted to go out there and show what we’ve been working on for the
past few weeks. We just want to show the consistency now.”That has been
something unattainable for the Steelers (2-2-1) through a wildly uneven opening
month.The two-time defending AFC North champions find themselves in an unusual
spot heading into Sunday’s visit to Cincinnati (4-1), particularly on defense.
Pittsburgh is 29th in yards allowed but also tops the NFL with 19 sacks, on pace
to surpass the club record of 56 set a year ago.Coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the
idea the Steelers are blitzing more this season to overcome shaky play by a
revamped secondary. Maybe, but Butler is certainly not shy about sending players
from all over.EightSteelers already have at least one sack. Fort picked up just
the third of his six-year career against the Falcons and free-agent signee Jon
Bostic’s 2 1-2 are a career high. Butler isn’t trying to read too much into his
team’s success creating pressure, perhaps because it has been so spotty.The week
before Pittsburgh’s pass rush harassed and harangued Ryan, it only brought down
Baltimore’s Joe Flacco twice in 44 attempts as the Ravens pulled away in the
second half.“Sometimes you’re lucky, sometimes you’re not,” Butler said.
“Sometimes you’re good. Sometimes you’re bad.”Butler called the key to blitzing
successfully a mixture of timing and disguise. Having the right people in the
right places certainly helps. Pittsburgh overwhelmed the Falcons on the same day
veteran cornerback Joe Haden shut down Atlanta star wide receiver Julio Jones.
The Steelers also had nickelback Mike Hilton in the mix after he sat out the
Baltimore loss with a right elbow injury.The 5-foot-9, 184-pound Hilton has
carved out a niche as an unlikely enforcer off the edge thanks in part to
impeccable timing. Hilton has a preternatural ability to guess the snap count —
he proudly points out he’s jumped offside just once in his career — and his
quickness and aggressiveness give Butler another option.“I try to set the tone
any way I can,” said Hilton, who had two quarterback hits against Atlanta. “I
wouldn’t say guys look up to me, but they see how I play and they’re like, ‘He’s
the smallest guy on the field and he’s playing physical and being aggressive.’
It just gives everybody the same energy.”The key for Pittsburgh is finding a way
to sustain it. Watt’s play — massively successful one week, decidedly quiet the
next — is symbolic of a unit still rounding into form. He isn’t worried about
trying to keep pace with his big brother as much as he is trying to make sure
he’s hardly the only one getting to the quarterback.“I don’t think anyone in
this scheme is meant to eat up blocks,” Watt said. “We all have great
opportunities. It’s awesome when those guys push the pocket. It allows the
quarterback to step back and allows us to get a little wider rushes, and also
get the quarterback in our hands.”And then — Watt and the Steelers hope — on the
ground.NOTES: S Morgan Burnett (groin), LB Fort (ankle) and WR Darrius
Heyward-Bey (ankle) did not practice and are unlikely to play against the
Bengals. … S Terrell Edmunds (ankle) and LB Vince Williams (hamstring) were full
participants for a second straight day.
